mpw seeing -- released this week, 452% saw no change from the current tepid economic environment. 28% saw a decline and 18% said things will get better. it is still an improvement from last year, when 48% predicted a decline. the last few years of recovery, followed by slowdowns of political crisis, of new terror attacks from north africa, have made people wary of excessive optimism. these are stable, crises have been contained. there's some growth on the horizon, but no one's ready to declare that we have turned any corners. there are no bulls in davos this year, no countries taking center stage. one symbol of the mood, the big splashy parties that companies like google used to throw have been quietly discontinued. not that google couldn't afford it, they just had that their first year with $50 billion in revenue. it's a sense of growth that people have gotten used to, growth that companies have hoped for in the future just doesn't seem likely. growth numbers that are low, lower than they had projected only a few months ago. the world is coming to grips with the fact that the financi